Column By: MIKE TRAVERSE / RPW – ACCORD, NY – It’s been a very busy season so far in 2022 for Danny Creeden. But it’s also been quite successful.
After winning the opening night feature at Accord Speedway, the defending Modified champion had not made a return trip to Victory Lane. But the finishes have been good, and it was only a matter of time before he would be taking another win. And that time was Friday night as Creeden raced to a convincing win in the 30 lap Modified feature over Randy Green and Scott Ferrier.
Brett Graham and Green led the field at the start with Randy grabbing the top spot. Caution was out quickly for Kurt Hundeland and Ken Ferrier in the 4th turn and both were done for the evening. Jimmy Wells went hard into the 3rd turn wall on lap 5. Wells returned to the race, but several laps down.
On the restart, Creeden was on the move. He moved into the top 5 after passing Daniel Morgiewicz Jr. on lap 7. And got past Rich Ricci Jr. and Graham before the caution came out on lap 13 for Ricci Jr. who came to a stop in turn 2 and got a tow off.
On lap 15, Creeden passed Scott Ferrier for 2nd and began to chase down Green. Danny got positioned in the inside of Green and made the pass for the lead on lap 20.
Creeden pulled away from Green over the last 10 laps to take the checkered flag a full 3 seconds ahead of Randy. Scott Ferrier finished 3rd with Danny Tyler 4th and Graham 5th. Morgiewicz Jr. was 6th with Joe Judge 7th, Mike Ricci 8th, Will Dietz 9th and Rich Ricci III 10th.
“We were pretty good tonight,” said Danny in Victory Lane. “We just kind of lost focus here with all the racing we have been doing this season. This is race number 45 for this team this year. We lost our notes, but luckily, I found our notes again.”
Was the Accord winless streak frustrating?
“It was a little frustrating. But Danny Tyler is tough, Randy Green is tough, Jimmy Wells is tough. Everybody’s tough here. There’s 6 to 8 cars that can win here every week. So it’s tough competition. Is it frustrating that we aren’t winning, yes. Is it frustrating that we are not winning but they are, no. Because they are good teams that work hard.”
As Creeden pulled into Victory Lane, he had a right rear flat. He looked surprised when he saw it, but said that it had little effect over the last few laps.
“The car got tight with about 3 to go. And it started shoving the nose. After the race, they told me about the flat. Yeah, that will make the car tight,”
The win for Danny was his 18th of his career at Accord as he broke a tie with Jackie Brown Jr. Creeden is now tied with Tyler for 9th on Accord’s all time win list.
Kevin Stevens led from flag-to-flag to win his 2nd Sportsman feature of the season. Stevens outraced Travis Green and Tyler Johnston in the 25 lap race for the win.
Stevens and Scott Zehnacker led the field to green as Green went from 5th starting spot to 2nd by lap 2. Jared Miller rolled to a stop on lap 11 to bring out the caution. He went to the pits as did Steve Williams and Jared LaBagh.
As the race progressed through the 2nd half, the best race on the track was between Johnston and Jimmy Johnson. The ran side-by-side for many laps, swapping the spot a few times before Johnston grabbed it for good with 4 laps to go.
At the finish, it was Stevens by 3/4 of a second over Green with Johnston, Johnson and Cody Higbie completing the top 5. Ryan Stortini was 6th with Zehnacker 7th, Harry Baldwin 8th, Eddie Owens 9th and Miller 10th.
Dave Demorest took the lead early and went on to victory in the Pure Stock division at Accord on Friday. Joe Narok pressured Demorest during the early portions of the race, but Dave was able to stretch the lead out in the late stages. Walt Henry gave Narok a battle over the final few laps and came in 3rd with JB Morris 4th and Jayden Sleight 5th.
Charles Weslowski was the winner for the 2nd time this season in the North East Wingless Sprints. Steve Kyser finished 2nd.
Amber Baccaglini raced to her 4th All Star Slingshots victory on Friday. Madison Lewis was 2nd followed by Alex McCann 3rd, Derick Brown 4th and Kristen Bishop 5th.
Bodie Marks was Friday’s winner in the Junior Slingshots for his first win of the season. Calleigh Stritmater was 2nd with EJ Hatch 3rd and Walt Henry IV 4th.
Robert Beach won his 2nd Fireball 4 Cylinder race of the season at Accord on Friday night. Ed King was 2nd, Richard Smith 3rd, Mike Travis 4th and Brandon Conklin 5th. Completing the top 10 were Cole Conklin 6th, Tim DeGrote 7th, Chris Dyer 8th, George Barringer 9th and Bruce Illenberg 10th.
And the final event on the Outpost BBQ night racing card was the Rookie Sportsman. Thor Holmgren scored his first ever victory at Accord with John Cole Jr. 2nd, Tommy Marshall 3rd, Leif Holmgren 4th and Andrew Sabo 5th.
Racing returns to the 1/4 mile bullring in Accord, NY on July 15th.